I.  Overview of the Human Rights Situation

Tibetans living under Chinese rule have a long and well-documented history of unaddressed social, political, religious, and economic grievances. The Chinese government refuses to recognize the validity of virtually all criticisms leveled against state policies in Tibetan areas. It continues to frame almost all critiques of its policies and practices as efforts to undermine its claim of sovereignty over the Tibetan areas, claiming that the country's territorial integrity and inter-ethnic relations are threatened by a secessionist movement supported by “hostile foreign forces.”[1]

The Chinese authorities systematically reject allegations of human rights violations in Tibetan areas, claiming they are conspiracies to fan ethnic dissatisfaction against the Communist Party and government. The government usually stresses that Tibetans' rights are fully guaranteed under the law, and point to political, social, and economic development over the past half-century as signs that the human rights of ethnic Tibetans are fully protected. In a typical statement of these claims, a government White Paper published in March 2011, “Fifty Years of Democratic Reform in Tibet,” asserts:

Over the past half century, thanks to the care of the Central People's Government and aid from the whole nation, the liberated people of all ethnic groups in Tibet have, in the capacity of masters of the nation, enthusiastically participated in the grand course of constructing a new society and creating a new lifestyle, and worked unprecedented miracles in Tibetan history. The social system of Tibet has developed by leaps and bounds; its modernization has advanced rapidly; Tibetan society has undergone earth-shaking historic changes; and remarkable progress has been witnessed in the cause of human rights that has attracted worldwide attention.[2]

The reality, however, is that severe, longstanding human rights violations by the Chinese state against Tibetans continue, irrespective of disputes over the political status of Tibet and the real or imagined motives of different parties and commentators. Sharp statutory restrictions on basic rights and freedoms, religious persecution against the clergy and laity, socio-economic and political discrimination, political prosecutions and torture, and mistreatment of prisoners have all been authoritatively documented over the years, including by inter-governmental bodies such as the United Nations.

UN bodies that have raised concerns about the situation of Tibetans in recent years include the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which recommended that China “carefully consider the root cause” of the ethnic incidents in Tibet and Xinjiang; the Committee on the Rights of the Child; the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women; the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination; the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances; the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders; and the UN special rapporteurs on, respectively, Freedom of Religion or Belief, the Right to Education, the Right to Food Security, and on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression.[3]

Human Rights Watch has documented in recent years severe and systematic human rights abuses, including religious repression, torture, disappearances, politically motivated trials, and disproportionate use of force by security forces.[4]

The 2008 Protests and Their Aftermath

The relationship between the Chinese state and Tibetans significantly deteriorated in the wake of Tibetan protests across the plateau in the spring of 2008.

From March 10, the anniversary of the failed 1959 uprising and the Dalai Lama’s subsequent escape to India, to March 14, 2008, monks from major monasteries in the Lhasa area attempted to hold peaceful demonstrations but were prevented from doing so by security forces. At that point, authorities of the TAR—who to date have not explained this decision—withdrew all security and police forces from central Lhasa for nearly two days, allowing rioting and arson by small groups of protesters. They attacked symbols of the Chinese state, such as police stations and official buildings, and set fire to shops they believed were owned by ethnic Chinese. A number of Chinese-looking people were assaulted and beaten on the street. Twenty-one people, including Han and Tibetans, were killed and several hundred injured in the violence.[5]

The government reacted by sealing off the TAR, imposing quasi-martial law in Lhasa and other areas, expelling almost all journalists and foreigners, and dispatching large numbers of troops from neighboring provinces. State media broadcast footage of the violence and attributed it to a plot by the “Dalai Clique” to sabotage the 2008 Beijing Olympics and fan inter-ethnic tensions. It announced a “life-and-death struggle” against the “separatist forces.” As news and images of the violence in Lhasa spread, dozens of protests erupted throughout the Tibetan plateau, many put down forcibly by Chinese security forces.

In the aftermath of the protests the government launched an unprecedented crackdown that led to thousands of arrests, at least dozens of convictions, and the permanent presence of large number of armed police forces throughout the region.

This crackdown was documented in a July 2010 Human Rights Watch’s report, “I Saw It with My Own Eyes: Abuses by Chinese Security Forces in Tibet, 2008-2010.”[6] The report, based on eyewitness testimonies, detailed abuses committed by security forces during and after protests, including use of disproportionate force in breaking up protests, firing on unarmed protesters, conducting large-scale arbitrary arrests, brutalizing detainees, and torturing suspects in custody.

The government rejected the findings of the report, which established that China had broken international law in its handling of the 2008 protests, and accused Human Rights Watch of "fabricating material aimed at boosting the morale of anti-China forces, misleading the general public and vilifying the Chinese government," but failed to respond to any of the report's substantive allegations.[7]

In September 2009, Navanetham Pillay, the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, called on the Chinese government “to reflect on the underlying causes” of unrest in ethnic areas, “which include discrimination and the failure to protect minority rights.” [8] Instead, the government introduced additional restrictions on access, movement, and communications in Tibetan areas. It implemented a new policy for controlling Tibetan monasteries in which police and government cadres are permanently stationed inside religious institutions. [9]

Self-Immolations

Tensions further increased after a Tibetan monk from Kirti monastery in Aba, Sichuan province, set himself on fire in March 2011 in protest of religious restrictions, triggering an unprecedented wave of similar self-immolations to the present.

By June 15, 2013, about 119 more Tibetans had set themselves on fire in protest, mostly in eastern Tibet. [10] The Tibetan government-in-exile said that self-immolations reflected the “despair” of Tibetans living in China, [11] while the Chinese government characterized the self-immolations as “terrorism in disguise” [12] and accused the Dalai Lama of having “encouraged” them to “disrupt social harmony.” [13] The government then undertook further efforts to seal off Tibet from outside information, [14] continued to increase the numbers of security forces present, [15] introduced a system whereby monasteries are placed under the direct rule of government officials permanently stationed in religious institutions, [16] and imposed much stricter controls over the movement of ethnic Tibetans, including residents in Lhasa. [17]